Last Minute Escape
In March 2020, I was backpacking in South America. Not my first time and I had been on the road for about two months already. I was following what was not yet a pandemic because I know Wuhan pretty well and I have close relatives in Europe. North and South America wasn’t affected much yet.
My Santiago-Toronto return ticket was for March 17. A week before, my husband who was already back in Canada suggested extending my trip since things were apparently better in South America. It was hard to reach Air Canada so we were taking turns calling to change the date on my ticket.
And then the atmosphere suddenly changed in Santiago. It was very weird, it went from “meh, we’re fine” to “we’re in trouble too”. I called my husband and told him I had to be on the March 17 plane because suddenly, I had to go home, else…
The last few days in Santiago were crazy and I was one of the lucky few with a return ticket right before flight cancellation and border closures. Glad I didn’t change my ticket. Story credit: Reddit / Xiaozhu